System and Method for Indexing Automated Telephone Systems

Abstract

A telephone subnet crawler is used to access automated telephone response systems and index the information, contents and structure contained therein. A database of the information, contents and structure of a plurality of automated telephone response systems is created by the telephone subnet crawler. A user interface provides callers with direct access to the information, contents and structure of the automated telephone response systems contained in the database. Where an automated telephone response system requires user input, the user interface calls the automated telephone response system and navigates to the node requiring user input, provides the user input and displays the results to the user. Where an automated telephone response system connects to an operator, the user interface calls the automated telephone response system, navigates to the node for an operator, and when an operator is detected, calls the user at a user provided callback number.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.